Hierarchical floating car data network

ABSTRACT

A hierarchical floating car data network comprises a central server, an egress point network, and a participating vehicle network. The egress point network is in communication with the central server. The egress point network comprises a plurality of egress points. The participating vehicle network comprises a plurality of participating vehicles. At least some of the plurality of participating vehicles are in direct communication with each other. At least some of the plurality of participating vehicles are in communication with at least some of the plurality of egress points. Furthermore, at least some of the plurality of participating vehicles may be in communication with the central server. A geographic database is formed from content communicated between the elements of the hierarchical floating car data network.

[0001] This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/272,039 filed Oct. 15, 2002 by Assimakis Tzamaloukas, et al., andentitled “Enhanced mobile communication device, and transportationapplication thereof,” the entirety of which is hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Global Positioning Systems (GPS), or GPS receivers, are beingused in increasing numbers in automobiles to provide vehicle navigationfunctions. Typically, a GPS receiver or navigation device comprises adigital road map, or geographic information (GIS) database, of the areaof travel. A user, such as the driver of a vehicle, inputs a destinationinto the GPS navigation device and the GPS navigation device calculatesa route from the current position of vehicle, through the network ofroads as represented in the GIS database, to the destination.Turn-by-turn directions are relayed to the driver through visual oraudible prompts. The current position of the vehicle is determined byreceiving GPS signals from GPS satellites. If the GPS signals areobstructed or interfered with, the current position of the vehicle maybe very difficult to ascertain and the usefulness of the GPS navigationdevice is severely degraded. GPS signals may be obstructed, for examplein urban areas with many tall buildings, on roads with many trees ormountains, and in areas with high levels of background radio noise orinterference.

[0003] In order to provide accurate driving direction the GIS databasemust be kept current and up-to-date. Databases, with varying levels ofaccuracy, are commercially available and are released for purchase andinstallation into GPS receivers at regular intervals. Oftentimes, sincethe databases are updated manually through visual surveys of theroadways, aerial observations, government data, and individual travel onthe roadways, it takes on average six months to create a new database.Additionally, on average, by the time a user is able to obtain thedatabase and install it the database is already obsolete by around threemonths. Furthermore, the database is only as good as the individualobservations and therefore may be incomplete in certain areas of travelas observations have not been made of those areas.

[0004] Some attempts have been made to automate the database updateprocess by providing a central database and a plurality of vehiclescontaining sensors. The vehicles travel a geographical region ofinterest and collect sensor information. The sensor information isprocessed and communicated to the central database. The central databasereceives the sensor information, processes it further, and integratesthe sensor information into the central database. The centralized-onlycommunication architecture of these approaches increases the cost andcomplexity of integrating the collected data. Furthermore, theseapproaches require a large number of vehicles constantly moving aroundthe geographic region in order to cover as much area as possible, andcollect as much sensor information as possible. Additionally, it is verydifficult to collect consistent sensor measurements of an identicalroute since different traffic conditions, drivers, traffic lights,weather, and the like will result in different sensor measurements andthus different information pertaining to a particular route. Also, thiscentralized only approach relies on wireless communications directly tothe central database. In many cases, due to geographical considerationsfor example, it may not be possible to communicate at all with thecentral database.

[0005] It would be advantageous to have systems and methods thatcommunicate map databases and route information between vehiclestraveling a transportation network, and between vehicles and a centraldatabase without the limitations of the prior art. It would be furtheradvantageous to have systems and methods that determine the geographiclocation of vehicles unable to receive GPS signals. Thus a needpresently exists for a hierarchical floating car data network.

SUMMARY

[0006] By way of introduction, the preferred embodiments below provide ahierarchical floating car data network. The hierarchical floating cardata network comprises a central server, an egress point network, and aparticipating vehicle network. The egress point network is incommunication with the central server. The egress point networkcomprises a plurality of egress points. The participating vehiclenetwork comprises a plurality of participating vehicles. At least someof the plurality of participating vehicles are in direct communicationwith each other. At least some of the plurality of participatingvehicles are in communication with at least some of the plurality ofegress points. Furthermore, at least some of the plurality ofparticipating vehicles may be in communication with the central server.A geographic database is formed from content communicated between theelements of the hierarchical floating car data network.

[0007] The foregoing paragraph has been provided by way of generalintroduction, and it should not be used to narrow the scope of thefollowing claims. The preferred embodiments will now be described withreference to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008]FIG. 1 is a hierarchical floating car data network.

[0009]FIG. 2 shows the layers of the hierarchical floating car datanetwork.

[0010]FIG. 3 shows the hardware components of on-board equipment of aparticipating vehicle in the hierarchical floating car data network.

[0011]FIG. 4 shows the hardware components of an egress point of thehierarchical floating car data network.

[0012]FIG. 5 shows an enhanced dead reckoning method.

[0013]FIG. 6 illustrates the components of egress point software of anegress point.

[0014]FIG. 7 shows an enhanced beacon format used by an egress point.

[0015]FIG. 8 illustrates the components of on-board software of theon-board equipment.

[0016]FIG. 9 shows measurement samples collected by multipleparticipating vehicles.

[0017]FIG. 10 shows different measurement types collected by multipleparticipating vehicles.

[0018]FIG. 11 illustrates pivotal points used for on-board datacollection.

[0019]FIG. 12 shows traces of multiple participating vehicles used for acenterlining method.

[0020]FIG. 13 illustrates an on-board data collection process ofon-board equipment.

[0021]FIG. 14 shows traces from a plurality of participating vehiclestraveling a network of roads.

[0022]FIG. 15 shows a state machine of the on-board equipment.

[0023]FIG. 16 shows a method for updating a database.

[0024] FIGS. 17A-D show infrastructure mode packet transmitting andreceiving methods between a participating vehicle and an egress point ofthe hierarchical floating car data network.

[0025] FIGS. 18A-B show ad-hoc mode packet transmitting and receivingmethods between participating vehicles.

[0026]FIG. 19 illustrates two participating vehicles sharing routeinformation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0027]FIG. 1 shows a hierarchical floating car data network. Thehierarchical floating car data network comprises a central server 18, anegress point network 14 comprising a plurality of egress points 10, anda participating vehicle network 12 comprising a plurality ofparticipating vehicles. At least some of the vehicles of thehierarchical floating car data network are participating vehicles.Participating vehicles are vehicles that comprise on-board equipmentsuch as an enhanced mobile communication device. One such enhancedmobile communication is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/272,039.

[0028] Participating vehicles are operative to communicate directly 12with other participating vehicles, to communicate 14 with the egresspoint network, and to optionally communicate 16 with the central server.Participating vehicles collect and exchange data, such as traffic data,as the participating vehicle traverses the roads of the transportationnetwork. A driver of a participating vehicle is a “user” or “end user.”

[0029] Egress points 10 are located throughout the transportationnetwork. Typically, the location of the egress points 10 is fixed andtheir location is known. Participating vehicles may communicate with theegress point 10. The egress points 10 may further be connected to theInternet or other wireline network. Participating vehicles maycommunicate with the egress points 10 according an IEEE 802.11infrastructure mode of communications. Additionally, as least some ofthe plurality of egress points 10 may communicate with each other.

[0030] Egress points 10 are fixed egress points, that is their locationremains fixed. Some participating vehicles may communicate with thecentral server. Such participating vehicles are mobile egress points,for example participating vehicles 9 and 19 are mobile egress points.The functionality of mobile egress points is identical to that of fixedegress points. A mobile egress point may communicate directly with otherparticipating vehicles, with other mobile egress points, with fixedegress points, and with the central server. The egress point networkcomprises fixed egress points and mobile egress points. Typically, amobile egress point is a vehicle such as a fleet vehicle having a knownschedule and trajectory.

[0031] The central server 18 receives communications, or content, fromthe egress point network. Content includes all types of data exchangedwithin the hierarchical floating car data network such as traffic data,GIS data, end user profile data, and synchronization data. The centralserver comprises a central geographic database, navigation applications,and network monitoring and management functions. The terms “centralgeographic database” and “central database” are used interchangeablyherein.

[0032] Participating vehicles, egress points, and the central servercommunicate with each other in many ways. Participating vehicles maycommunicate directly with each other. Any two participating vehicles,including for example a participating vehicle and a mobile egress point,or for example two mobile egress points, that are in range of each othercan communicate using an enhanced ad-hoc mode of communications asdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/272,039. This mode ofcommunications is referred to as vehicle-to-vehicle (v2v)communications. The participating vehicles exchange traffic information,navigation information, as well as geographic database informationstored and maintained local to each participating vehicle.

[0033] Participating vehicles and egress points may communicate witheach other. Any participating vehicle that comes within range of anegress point can communicate with that egress point according to theIEEE 802.11 infrastructure mode. A mobile egress point and fixed egresspoint also communicate with each other according to the infrastructuremode. A participating vehicle can transmit and receive data from anegress point. This form of communications is referred to asvehicle-to-roadside (v2r) communications 14. The egress points may alsobe operative to communicate with a wireline network, such as theInternet, thereby enabling the egress points to communicate with thecentral server and with other egress points.

[0034] In one more form of communication, referred to asvehicle-to-central server (v2c) communication, a participating vehicle,or mobile egress point, communicates directly with the central servervia a wireless wide area network (WWAN) link. A WWAN link is a cellularphone link such as CDPD, GPRS, 1xRTT, or 3G. A WWAN link is also along-range line-of-sight microwave link or a satellite link.

[0035]FIG. 2 shows the layers of the hierarchical floating car datanetwork. The hierarchical floating car data network comprises threelayers: a central server layer 20, an egress point network layer 22, anda participating vehicle network layer 24. Some participating vehiclesthat serve as mobile egress points, for example mobile egress point 31,are part of both the participating vehicle network layer 24 and theegress point network layer 22.

[0036] The central server layer 20 comprises a central server 18 asdescribed above. The egress point network layer 22 comprises a pluralityof egress points. The plurality of egress points may comprise fixedegress points and mobile egress points. The egress points cancommunicate 26 with the central server 18 through wireline ore wirelesscommunications. Additionally, at least some of the egress points,whether mobile or fixed, can communicate 28 with at least some other ofthe egress points, that is, an egress point has one or more peerconnections with other egress points.

[0037] The participating vehicle network layer 24 comprises a pluralityof participating vehicles 32. A participating vehicle may communicate 30with egress points of the egress point network. Some of theparticipating vehicles may be mobile egress points and communicate 36with the central server and other mobile and fixed egress points. Theparticipating vehicles may communicate directly 32 with otherparticipating vehicles.

[0038] A virtual private tunneling network (VPTN) 28 is created and usedfor communicating between the central server and the fixed and mobileegress points. A network tunnel is a communication mechanism toestablish a direct connection between two Internet host machines just asif there was a direct physical connection. A virtual, overlay networkcan be formed using a plurality of tunnels with the appropriate end-hostIP addresses. Typically, fixed egress points that are more closelylocated geographically are configured to communicate with one another.This better serves location-based applications such as traffic and mapupdates. Mobile egress points by default establish a tunnel with thecentral server. If due, to performance or scalability issues, it isnecessary or advantageous to communicate with a fixed egress point, alist of fixed egress points is traversed based on the proximity to themobile egress point's current location.

[0039] The central server 18 of the central server layer 20 comprisesthe central geographic database and receives content from the egresspoints 10 and the participating vehicles 24. The central databaseprocesses the content to update and keep current the central database.Updates may be performed on the database at various times. For example,the database may be updated during off-peak hours when the number ofcommunication links from participating vehicles is low, the database canbe updated every hour, or updated every minute, or the database can beupdated when each new piece of traffic update information is receivedfrom the participating vehicles. After the database is updated, thedatabase is checked for integrity and stability before replacing thedatabase in use. Shadow databases, as well as other methods known bythose of ordinary skill in the art, may be used to ensure theuninterrupted availability of the central server geographic database.

[0040] All or portions of the central database may be communicated tothe egress points and the participating vehicles. For example, aparticipating vehicle may request routing information. The centralserver processes this request and communicates information to theparticipating vehicle based on, for example, the speed and direction ofthe participating vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,745, which is herebyincorporated by reference, shows a method and system for forming ageographic database and communicating information to end users.

[0041]FIG. 3 shows the hardware components of the on-board equipment ofa participating vehicle. The on-board equipment comprises a locateposition module 54, an input/output module 46, a memory 42, amicroprocessor (CPU) 40, a storage device 44, a radio module 50comprising a Wi-Fi/Cellular radio, antennas 52, a bus 48, and optionallyauxiliary sensors 56. The bus interconnects the components of theon-board equipment. Additionally, some of the components may have directconnections with each other and with the CPU 40.

[0042] The CPU 40 is a microprocessor such as an embedded processorcapable of supporting a flat 32-bit address space. Many such processorsare available from companies such as ARM, Motorola, and Intel. Thememory 42 comprises memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM),non-volatile memory, static random access memory (SRAM), and the like.The memory stores processed and unprocessed data such as sensor datafrom the locate position module 54, as well as data received by theradio 50. The storage 44 comprises a permanent storage device or mediumsuch as CD, DVD, compact flash memory, a hard disk drive, and the like.The storage 44 performs a similar function as the memory, but typicallyhas a much higher capacity and is non-volatile. In some embodiments,there may be a memory but no storage, or very little memory and a largeamount of storage.

[0043] The input/output module 46 comprises various devices to permit auser to input information into the on-board equipment, and receiveinformation from the on-board equipment. For example, the input/outputmodule 46 may comprise keypads, voice recognition devices, buttons, or atouch screen so that the user can enter information such as adestination or a point of interest. A visual display such as an LCDscreen as well as devices to produce voice commands or other audiblealerts may be part of the input/output module 46. The input/outputmodule 46 may also include an infrared port, a Bluetooth port, a Wi-Fiport, a cellular radio, a serial data port, a USB port, or a paralleldata port thereby allowing the user to upload and download informationto and from the on-board equipment.

[0044] The bus 48 comprises data and control paths between the hardwarecomponents input/output module 46, memory module 42, CPU 40, storagedevice 44, and Wi-Fi/cellular radio 50. The locate position module 54and the auxiliary sensors 56 are connected directly to the CPU 40. Theantennas 52 are connected to the radio module 50. Various differentbusses may be implemented such as a PCI bus.

[0045] The radio module (Wi-Fi/cellular radio) 50 comprises a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN) radio such as an IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) radio,and further optionally comprises a wireless wide area network (WWAN)radio such as a digital cellular phone using global packet radio service(GPRS), 3G, microwave, satellite, or other long-range wirelessimplementation. The Wi-Fi radio 50 is used for vehicle-to-vehiclecommunication as well as for vehicle-to-roadside communications. Forvehicle-to-vehicle communications the radio operates using the enhancedad-hoc mode of communications of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/272,039.

[0046] The optional WWAN radio may be present in a small percentage ofparticipating vehicles for vehicle-to-central server communications.Vehicle-to-central server communications may take place under a varietyof circumstances. For example, data collected by the on-board equipmentmay be very large in quantity and could create storage capacity issuesfor the on-board equipment. If the on-board equipment is unable tocommunicate the data to other participating vehicles or to an egresspoint, it may communicate the data to the central server. Also, if theon-board equipment needs to request data but is not within range of anyother participating vehicles or an egress point, it may communicate withthe WWAN radio.

[0047] The antenna module 52 comprises the antennas used by the on-boardequipment for wireless communications. For example the antenna module 52may comprise an external antenna with high gain for the Wi-Fi radio 50.A pair of dipole antennas may be used to exploit spatial and antennadiversity. Two 30-degree directional antennas, one pointing forwardtowards the direction of the traffic flow and the other pointingbackwards behind a participating vehicle, provides optimizedcommunication coverage for a participating vehicle. The location of theexternal Wi-Fi antenna also directly affects performance. In general,installing the external antenna on the roof of the participating vehicleimproves performance since wave propagation is unobstructed due to theheight and visibility of the antenna. A location near any of the windowsalso improves performance since signal attenuation is small, around 2dBi to 3 dBi, even though the multipath effect is much higher due to thereflection of the wave from the metal components of the participatingvehicle. Other antennas include an integrated antenna that is part ofoff-the-shelf Wi-Fi PCI, PCMCIA, or SD cards. Another antenna is a GPSreceiver antenna. Generally, GPS receiver antennas should have a clearview of the sky. With a clear view of the sky, a GPS receiver antennacan track many satellites and accurately calculate the current locationof the vehicle. Cellular phone and satellite antennas may also be used.

[0048] The locate position module 54 allows the on-board equipment ofthe participating vehicle to ascertain its geodetic coordinates. Thelocate position module 54 may comprise sensors such as a GPS receiver.Many types of GPS receivers may be used such as a differential GPS(DGPS) receiver, or an assisted GPS (A-GPS) receiver. Companies such asAshtech, Garmin, Trimble, and SiRF provide GPS receivers. Additionally,when available, a wide area augmentation system (WAAS) such as that usedby the coastguard, or a local area augmentation system (LAAS) such asthat used by airports can provide improved location accuracy. Theoptional auxiliary sensors 56 may include a speed sensor, a barometer, agyroscope, a bearing sensor, an inertial sensor, and the like.

[0049] The egress points 10 of the egress point network comprise egresspoint equipment as shown in FIG. 4. The egress point equipment comprisesa memory 60, a microprocessor (CPU) 58, a storage device 62, a bus 68,antennas 64, and a communication module 66 comprising a wireless localarea network radio such as a Wi-Fi radio, a wireless wide area networkradio such as a cellular radio, and a wireline connection. Thecomponents are very similar to those discussed above in accordance withthe on-board equipment. The memory 60, microprocessor 58, storage device66, and communication module 66 are in communication via the bus 68. Theantennas 64 are connected to the communication module 66. Generally, thememory 50, CPU 58, and storage device 62 have a higher capacity thanthat of the on-board equipment since the egress point equipment must beable to communicate with and process communications from a plurality ofparticipating vehicles. The antenna module 64 comprises, for example, apair of directional high gain Wi-Fi antennas pointing in the opposingdirections of traffic flow. An array of two or more directional antennasmay be used for improved wireless range coverage. The communicationmodule 66 comprises the wireless radios as described above and alsocomprises a wireline connection. Examples of a wireline connection are adigital subscriber line (DSL), a cable modem, a T1 line, a T3 line, andan optical line. The wireline connection connect the egress pointequipment with the Internet.

[0050] Determining the Position of a Vehicle

[0051] As stated above, the locate position module 54 of the on-boardequipment provides the location of the participating vehicle through GPSsignals. In many cases the GPS signal is too weak or is blocked and theon-board equipment cannot ascertain its position. For example, in citieswith tall building the GPS signal may be extremely weak due to effectssuch as the urban canyon effect. Various dead-reckoning techniques maybe used to ascertain the position of the participating vehicle in theabsence of a complete GPS signal. For example an adjacent positiondead-reckoning method uses a gyroscope or compass in order to estimatethe vehicle's position based on its current velocity and direction. Manydead reckoning methods use estimation methods such as least minimumsquare error (LMSE), autoregressive equations and Kalman filtering.Dead-reckoning methods that rely on the vehicle's projected velocity canprovide false or inaccurate position measurements. For example, if avehicle stops at a traffic light for several seconds a large error islikely to appear in the case when the average velocity is used toperform a position calculation.

[0052] An enhanced dead-reckoning method for determining the position ofa participating vehicle is shown in FIG. 5. Participating vehiclestravel along three parallel roads 74, 76, and 78. A first egress point70 is located at position (X,Y) and a second egress point 72 is locatedat position (X′,Y′). The locations of the egress points are static andare known by the participating vehicles, or are communicated to theparticipating vehicles periodically with geo-beacon packets.

[0053] In the example of FIG. 5, participating vehicles are unable toreceive GPS signals when the participating vehicles are within the areadefined by the rectangle 80 from (xb,yb) to (xe,ye). The vehicle atlocation (x1,y1) is not within rectangle 80 and receives a locationreading from the GPS signals. The vehicle at location (x2,y2) does notreceive a GPS signal and therefore uses enhanced dead-reckoning. Thevehicle at location (x2,y2) is within range of the egress points 70 and72 located at (X,Y) and (X′,Y′) respectively, and receives egress pointlocation information from geo-beacons as mentioned above.

[0054] A participating vehicle, such as vehicle at location (x2,y2),uses prior art dead-reckoning methods and link quality information fromegress points 70 and 72 to roughly estimate its location.Signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio is used to describe the difference betweenthe signal strength versus the noise level at a location. When a vehiclereceives a packet from an egress point it derives the SNR ratio for thatpacket at that location. In general, the higher the SNR ratio the closerthe vehicle is located to an egress point with a fixed, known location.

[0055] The accuracy of the location calculation can be further enhancedby way of a received signal strength indication (RSSI) communicated fromthe Wi-Fi radio 50 of the on-board equipment and the Wi-Fi radio 66 ofthe egress point equipment. For example, the participating vehicle cancreate a query packet that comprises the RSSI and request that theegress points calculate its position using calculations and terraincalibration data. Terrain calibration data is generated when the egresspoints are installed through field measurements and post-processingsimulation using wave propagation tools. Wave propagation tools areavailable from Ekahau Inc., Silicon Valley Wireless Inc., and others.

[0056] Observed time difference (OTD) methods can also be used tocalculate the location of the vehicle. For example, in observed timedifference of arrival (OTDOA) synchronous transmission from all egresspoints within range may be used and a difference calculation may beperformed at the participating vehicle. In another example, theparticipating vehicle transmits time stamped packets to the egresspoints, and the egress points calculate the position of theparticipating vehicle using the time stamped packets. Generally, themore egress points that are within range of the participating vehicle,the greater the accuracy of the position calculation of theparticipating vehicle. However, even with one egress point within range,a position calculation can be performed either at the participatingvehicle or at the egress point. The location error will be higherhowever than if multiple egress points were in range. OTD, OTDOA, SNRand RSSI methods may be used in combination.

[0057] Referring back to FIG. 5, vehicle (x2,y2′) on road 76 cancommunicate 82, 84 with egress point 70 and egress point 72 to computeits location. The accuracy of the location can be further enhanced witha vehicle-to-vehicle link 86 with the vehicle at location (x3,y3).Vehicle (x3,y3) is able to receive GPS signals. The vehicle-to-vehiclelink 86 is at most several hundred feet so the location of vehicle(x2,y2′) is at most several hundred feet from the location of (x3,y3).The accuracy of the location of vehicle (x2,y2′) may be further enhancedby applying enhanced dead-reckoning methods based on OTD, OTDOA, SNR orRSSI between the vehicle at location (x3, y3) and egress points withinrange.

[0058] The vehicle at location (x2,y2″) is not within range of anyegress points and cannot receive GPS signals. However, vehicle (x2,y2″)is within range of vehicle (x3,y3′) and receives a GPS measurement fromthat vehicle over vehicle-to-vehicle link 94. Additionally, vehicle(x2,y2″) can communicate with vehicle-to-vehicle link 92 with vehicle(x4,y4). While vehicle (x4,y4) cannot receive GPS signals, it cancommunicate with vehicle (x6,y6) and vehicle (x5,y5) usingvehicle-to-vehicle links 90 and 88 respectively. Vehicles (x6,y6) and(x5,y5) can receive GPS signals and the locations of those vehicles canbe transmitted to vehicle (x2,y2″) by way of vehicle (x4,y4).Furthermore, vehicle (x2,y2″) can receive the location of vehicle(x4,y4) as ascertained through dead-reckoning. Vehicle (x4,y4) havingjust entered rectangle 80 has been using enhanced dead-reckoning foronly a short time an thus has a more accurate location measurement.

[0059] Assisted GPS (A-GPS) can also be used to provide a location for avehicle unable to receive GPS signals or able to receive onlyintermittent GPS signals, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,131,067 and6,208,290, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

[0060] In the context of the hierarchical floating car data networkA-GPS is adapted so that a participating vehicle broadcasts a locationrequest packet comprising its approximate current position as derivedfrom dead-reckoning. An egress point within range receives the locationrequest packet and responds with another packet comprising thesatellites in view for the participating vehicle, Doppler frequencycorrections, and other information to enable the on-board equipment tocalculate the current location of the vehicle. This method is used invehicle-to-vehicle communications, such as the example given above forvehicle (x2,y2″), wherein one vehicle is unable to receive GPS signalsand at least one other vehicle within range is able to receive GPSsignals.

[0061] A minimum of four satellites must be in view of a participatingvehicle to identify all three coordinates with a GPS receiver. If onlythree satellites are within view, a participating vehicle can stillaccurately derive latitude and longitude, but cannot accurately derivealtitude.

[0062] Egress Point Equipment and On-Board Equipment

[0063]FIG. 6 illustrates the components of egress point softwareexecuted by the egress point equipment of FIG. 4. FIG. 8 illustrates thecomponents of on-board software executed by the on-board equipment ofFIG. 3. Many of the components of the egress point software and theon-board software are similar. The egress point software comprises ageographic database 96, a navigation module 98, a routing module 100, acartography module 102, a maneuver module 104, an interface module 100,a processor module 108, a wireless communication module 110, a cache112, and a wireline communication module 114. Briefly, the egress pointsoftware accumulates, processes, and propagates data from participatingvehicles in range.

[0064] The egress point communicates the accumulated and processed datawith the central server. This occurs periodically, for example everyhour. In another example, the egress point uploads data to the centralserver when more than one half of its storage capacity is used. Theegress point supports remote management and control functions that allowa remote user to retrieve data stored at the egress point.

[0065] The egress point maintains a list of other egress points that canbe communicated with for intra-egress communications as described above(28 of FIG. 2). For example, egress points in close proximity to oneanother may be able to communicate with each other. Egress points deletedata that they have accumulated when, for example, the data has beencommunicated to the central server, or when the data has beencommunicated to another egress point. Accumulated data is deleted afteran explicit positive acknowledgement is received that identifies thesuccessful transfer of custody of the data within the hierarchicalfloating car data network. Mobile egress points may use a moreconservative or dynamic on-demand communication schedule to reduce thecost of airtime through the WWAN link.

[0066] The wireless communication module 110 comprises a modified IEEE802.11 device driver that creates an enhanced beacon format as shown inFIG. 7. The enhanced beacon format comprises a legacy IEEE 802.11 beacon116, a latitude field 118, a longitude field 120, and an altitude field122. The dimensions of latitude, longitude, and altitude are expressedin navigation dimensional units equal to {fraction (1/100,000)} of adegree. The navigation units may be absolute or relevant to a coordinateposition on the surface of the earth. The navigation units may beintegers where the smallest unit of measurement is 1, which represents{fraction (1/100,000)} of a degree. Any compact binary encoding methodmay be used to represent the navigation unit values. Alternatively,floating point coordinates can be sent as part of the enhanced beacon.Floating point coordinates will reduce the location error to less thanone meter. Egress points may transmit legacy beacon packets only,enhanced beacon packets only, or combinations of the two. Egress pointsmay interleave legacy and enhanced beacons to reduce network overheadand to maintain ubiquitous compatibility across egress points and legacyIEEE 802.11 devices.

[0067] The egress points are configured to operate on a frequencychannel specified by the central server, which maintains a channelfrequency allocation map. If wave propagation conditions indicate thatthere is a need to change to a different channel then the egress pointrequests a new channel from the central server. The channel frequencyallocation map is used throughout the hierarchical floating car datanetwork and the egress points are not regularly reconfigured to switchchannels, rather they request channel reallocation from the centralserver. Additionally, before an egress point switches channels itbroadcasts that switch to the participating vehicles within range. Everyegress point in the hierarchical floating car data network receivesupdates comprising a new frequency allocation map when the frequencyallocation changes. The frequency allocation map may also be transmittedat regular intervals. Participating vehicles are assigned the samefrequency channel as the egress point with which they are in range of.In this way, a participating vehicle will seamlessly receive beaconsfrom an egress points as it comes within range. If an egress point haschanged its frequency channel, participating vehicles that have receivednotice of the change in frequency channel communicate this informationto other participating vehicle via the vehicle-to-vehicle network.

[0068] The egress points broadcasts beacons every 100 ms. Alternativelythe egress points may vary the time frequency at which they broadcastbeacons from 100 ms to 1000 ms. This may occur, for example, if anegress point is within range of a large number of slow moving vehicles.If small numbers of fast moving vehicles are within range, the beaconfrequency may be set from 10 ms to 100 ms. Statistics concerning theperformance of the egress point network are maintained in order todetermine the optimal beacon frequency transmission rate.

[0069]FIG. 8 illustrates the components of on-board software executed bythe on-board equipment of FIG. 3. The on-board software comprises ageographic database 124, a navigation module 126, a routing module 128,a cartography module 130, a maneuver module 132, an interface module136, a processor module 138, a communication protocol module 140, acache module 142, and a sensor/on-board diagnostics (OBD) processingmodule 144. As mentioned above, many of the modules of the on-boardsoftware of FIG. 8 and the egress point software of FIG. 6 are the same.For example modules 124, 126, 128, 130, 132, 136, 138, and 142 of theon-board software provide identical functions to modules 96, 98, 100,102, 104, 106, 108, and 112 respectively of the egress point software.

[0070] The processor module 138 comprises an embedded operating system,device drivers, application programming interfaces (APIs), and a userspace application. The embedded operating system is embedded Linux, withopen source drivers and APIs for the hardware components described inaccordance with FIG. 3 (and FIG. 4 for the egress point equipment).Other operating systems may be used. The user space application monitorsthe status of the software modules and executed a finite state machinesuch as the finite state machines of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/272,039.

[0071] The processor module 138 communicates with the interface module136, the cache module 142, the sensor/OBD processing module 144, and thecommunication protocols module 140. The cache module 142 is incommunication with the sensor/OBD processing module 144, and thecommunication protocols module 140. The communication protocols module140 comprises executable code for communicating according to thecommunication protocols used by the on-board equipment, for exampleWLAN. Multiple communications are supported, and multiple communicationprotocols may be simultaneously in use. For example a WLAN link may beactive between a participating vehicle and another participating vehicleor egress point, and, at the same time, a WWAN link may be active foruploading or requesting information from the central server.

[0072] A WLAN communication protocol, also referred to as baselineradio, used by the on-board equipment is described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/272,039. The baseline radio is expanded toinclude vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications,hereinafter referred to as extended radio.

[0073] The baseline radio operates according to an enhanced IEEE 802.11ad-hoc mode. It supports broadcast packet transmission so thatparticipating vehicles can establish vehicle-to-vehicle communicationfor exchanging traffic data. The enhanced ad-hoc mode uses adaptive datarate control methods along with redundant packet retransmission methodsat the link layer. The IEEE 802.11 power control, static channelassignment, and error control coding algorithms are not modified.

[0074] The extended radio supports vehicle-to-vehicle communications asabove and also supports vehicle-to-roadside communications forcommunicating with an egress point or an IEEE 802.11 access point. Tooptimize the enhanced ad-hoc mode of the extended radio the IEEE 802.11beacon generation frequency is set to 0, that is, there are no MAC(media access controller) beacons created to synchronize radios. MACbeacons are generally used to optimize the throughput of a WLAN, but forvehicle-to-vehicle communications, where links are short-lived with lowthroughput, the delay overhead from beacons is expensive and redundant.Also, to further optimize the enhanced ad-hoc mode there are noauthentication, association, power management, or any other control ormanagement IEEE 802.11 packets exchanged. Additionally, channelassignment is fixed for all vehicles to avoid long delays resulting fromscanning channels for beacons and other traffic activity.

[0075] Dynamic channel assignment may be used based on the location ofthe participating vehicle. A frequency assignment process mapsindividual channels to individual regions. A participating vehiclelearns the current frequency allocation communicating with the centralserver, an egress point, or through a synchronization process that cantake place between a legacy IEEE 802.11 access point and a participatingvehicle located at a home-garage or an office parking lot. For example,all participating vehicles use channel 2 to establish vehicle-to-vehiclecommunication while in exemplary region A, and channel 5 in exemplaryregion B. When a participating vehicle moves from region A to region B,the participating vehicle switches from channel 2 to channel 5.

[0076] A region can support more than one frequency channel to provideadditional communication capacity. If more than one channel is supportedby a region, the participating vehicles can switch among the availablechannels. Since scanning channels in the direct sequence spread spectrummodulation mode requires time, unnecessary switching between multiplechannels in a single region can degrade overall network performance. Incases where a participating vehicle is unable to establish communicationwith other elements of the hierarchical floating car data network acorrupted or obsolete channel frequency allocation map may result. Insuch a case, all 11 available channels of the 2.4 GHz ISM band arescanned. For improved performance, the scanning process may use a dwelltime of less than 100 ms per channel. Once activity is identified at oneor more of the channels, the scanning process can dynamically loopthrough only those channels with a dwell time of 250-500 ms per channel.This scanning process is supported by most commercially available 802.11(Wi-Fi) radios. The device drivers and firmware implementations of theradios may vary. For example, the MAC controller from a Cisco Systemsradio has an integrated scanner, whereas MAC controllers for an Intersilradio usually require an explicit signal to place the radio intoscanning mode in order to be able to hop between different frequencychannels.

[0077] The infrastructure mode of communications is used whencommunicating with an egress point or access point. The enhanced ad-hocmode is for communicating between participating vehicles, that is, forspontaneously forming a local wireless network. A method is required forswitching between the enhanced ad-hoc mode of communication and theinfrastructure mode of communications for the on-board equipmentcomprising the extended radio.

[0078] The extended radio can switch operation between theinfrastructure and enhanced ad-hoc mode without having to resort to aglobal reset of the radio. A global reset is undesirable since allnetwork associations are dropped, buffers are cleared, and timers areset to their default values. For legacy IEEE 802.11 radios, the MAC modeof operation can only be manually set by the user through a programminginterface. An application executing as part of the processor module 138dynamically switches between MAC operation modes. Switching betweenthese modes is transparent to the user. By default, the extended radiooperates in the enhanced ad-hoc mode. If the extended radio comes withinrange of an egress point and receives a beacon from the egress point orsome other legacy IEEE 802.11 access point, a device driver generates aMAC signal that notifies the application. A prior art Wi-Fi radiooperating in ad-hoc mode would simply discard the beacon. Theapplication finite state machine uses the received MAC signal toinitiate a transition to the infrastructure mode so that theparticipating vehicle can communicate with the egress point. Under somecircumstances, if a vehicle-to-vehicle transaction is occurring then theswitch to the infrastructure mode may be delayed. Otherwise, if the datacollected by the on-board device exceed a threshold of the totalcapacity of the device, or the on-board device has a pending requestsuch a request for routing directions, the application switches modesimmediately.

[0079] The participating vehicle is configured to be able to associatewith any egress point within range (for example using a BSSID set to“any”). A typical association and authentication process comprises a 2or 4-way handshake, which, with off-the-shelf Wi-Fi equipment takes50-1000 ms. The inter-access point protocol (IAPP) proposed in the IEEE802.1 if working group provides mechanisms to establish communicationbetween a plurality of access points using a distribution system (DS)over a TCP/IP or UDP/IP network transport protocol. In the hierarchicalfloating car data network, an egress point expedites the process ofassociation with participating vehicles by sharing state informationwith other egress points regarding the participating vehicle at task.State information includes authentication, association, andauthorization credentials. A credential may include information thatuniquely identifies a participating vehicle, an end user, a Wi-Fi radio,a back-end billing account, timestamps, location, prior transactions,and the like. A credential is generated to authorize and protect thecontent between a first egress point and a participating vehicle. Thecredential can then be propagated to any other egress point in thenetwork through a secure tunnel. Since a participating vehicle is likelyto follow the same route a number of times (e.g. commute to work orschool), an egress point can keep in its cache the credentials for thatvehicle after the first encounter. If a participating vehiclecommunicates with the same egress point then the cached stateinformation continues to be stored as is. Otherwise, after a certainperiod of inactivity an egress point can expunge an idle entry from thecache.

[0080] Proactive collaboration may take place between egress points thatexist within a route that a participating vehicle repetitively follows.For instance, nearby egress points engage a selected state transfer ifthere is prior indication that a participating vehicle might follow apre-identified common route. Also, an end user may have entered adestination into the on-board device. In this case, the first egresspoint that establishes communication with that participating vehiclelearns the destination and the suggested turn-by-turn directions thatthe vehicle is likely to follow to reach its destination. The firstegress point propagates this information to other egress points based ontheir location to the participating vehicle. In this way association,authentication and other control and management handshakes can beoptimized in all but one of the egress points that a participatingvehicle encounters.

[0081] Hysteresis is used to avoid false mode switching where an egresspoint becomes available for a very short period of time and thendisappears. Preferably, the location of the egress point is such that itoptimally faces both directions of traffic. In that case, aparticipating vehicle should receive a regular signal wherein the signalstrength increases in strength as the vehicle approaches the location ofthe egress point. However, optimal egress point placement may not bepossible, or multiple egress points may be co-located and interfere witheach other. The interference causes misleading SNR and RSSImeasurements. To overcome these issues, the application decodes thereceived beacons to determine the relative location of the participatingvehicle to the egress points. Based on the relative locations, and thevelocity and trajectory of the participating vehicle, it is determinedwhether to switch to the infrastructure mode, and which egress point toswitch to, that is which channel to use if more than one egress pointsare within range. In an alternative embodiment, the location of theegress points within range is known to the participating vehicle and thehysteresis calculations are based on actual geographic distances.

[0082] Once the participating vehicle transitions to the infrastructuremode it stays there until it loses connectivity with the egress point.When it loses connectivity, the application sends a signal to the devicedriver to switch back to the default ad-hoc mode. To avoid long periodswhere a weak signal from an egress point is received for an extendedperiod of time, the application chooses to prematurely switch back tothe ad-hoc mode using the methods described above.

[0083] Position information from the GPS receiver as well as positioninformation from enhanced dead reckoning is used to decide which egresspoint or access point to switch to in the case of AP footprint overlap.With AP footprint overlap, the power emitted from one egress pointinterferes with an area that is covered by another egress point. Sincethe on-board equipment communicates with only one access point at atime, even small signal variations can cause association flip-flopping,or switching back and forth between different egress points or accesspoints. The position information is used such that, for example, theegress point closest to the participating vehicle is used even if thereis another interfering signal unless there is substantial difference inthe quality of the signal due to interference from the surroundingenvironment.

[0084] An automated transmit power control mechanism based on thelocation of a participating vehicle may be used to reduce interferenceand increase efficiency. For example, a participating vehicle reducesits transmit power level as it approaches an egress point location andconversely it increases its transmit power level as it moves away froman egress point location. In this way, interference and near-far powerand delay capture effects are minimized leading to better utilization ofthe communication medium.

[0085] Turning back to FIG. 8 (with parallel reference to the modulesdescribed above of FIG. 6), the processor module 138 is in communicationwith the sensor/OBD module 144. The sensor/OBD module 144 collects andprocesses data. For example the latitude, longitude, altitude, andvehicle speed and direction from GPS signals are collected andprocessed. If GPS signals are not available, enhanced dead reckoning isused to derive vehicle coordinates. Velocity, direction, and altitudemay also be available from the odometer, a compass, and a gyroscope.Other sensor measurements from the vehicles on-board diagnostics bus canbe received by the sensor/OBD processing module 144. Informationconcerning the speed limit, address ranges, street names, types ofroads, number of lanes, width of the lanes, road conditions, and thelike may also be received. Additional information can be entered usingvoice commands, a keypad, or other input device as described above.

[0086] Updates to the on-board software, and in particular thecommunication protocols module 140, and the sensor/OBD processing module144 can be performed automatically. New or updated version of thesoftware components can be stored in the central server or at the egresspoints or both. As a participating vehicle comes within range of anegress point that comprises the newer software, a high priority upgradeprocess is executed. During this process, the new release of thesoftware is downloaded from the egress point, or from the centralserver, through the egress point, to the on-board equipment of aparticipating vehicle. Alternatively, an end user can manually installnew or updated software using a storage medium or a WLAN link withaccess to the Internet where an automated software upgrade procedureresides. After the new release of the software is downloaded to theon-board device it is checked for integrity errors. If no errors arefound, a self-extracting process installs the new components making surethat there is always a fail-safe state maintained if for some reason theupdate process was interrupted or terminated by the end user or due to apower failure of the device. If errors are discovered in any of thesteps involved in updating the on-board software, the device reverts tothe last configuration and another attempt is made to download a newimage of the update software from an egress point or the central server.

[0087] The communication protocols module 140 and the sensor/OBD module144 communicate with the cache module 142. The cache module 142 collectsdata from the both modules. Cache module 112 of FIG. 6 collects datafrom wireless communication module 110 and wireline communication module114. Wireline communication module 114 provides wireline connectivity,for example, a wired connection to the Internet. The processing module144 may collect position and status samples regularly or irregularly asshown in FIG. 9. For example, an inertial sensor in a participatingvehicle can output samples every 0.1 seconds, and an off-the-shelf GPSreceiver can output data every 1 second or more. The on-board equipmentuses an interrupt-based approach that allows all sensor devices tocommunicate new measurements to the processor as they are received. Aperipheral interrupt controller (PIC), which is usually embedded in theprocessor, permits real-time interrupt priority assignment so that noblocking occurs between two or more sensors. Thus, all sensor values arecollected by the cache 142 and processing can take place.

[0088] Since participating vehicles may have different on-boardequipment, they may collect different measurements. FIG. 10 showsdifferent measurement types collected by two participating vehicles 150,152. The on-board equipment of vehicle 150 comprises a GPS receiver andrecords GPS position data as shown by the squares. Vehicle 152 uses acompass and enhanced dead reckoning to compute is its current positionas shown by the triangle.

[0089] After collecting a new sensor measurement, the measurement iscached along with a timestamp assigning a chronological order to thesample. The sample may also be filtered. A filtering process is invokedasynchronously after receiving the new sensor measurement. The filteringprocess accepts some measurements and rejects others. The filteringprocess calculates differences between successive samples. That is,samples are evaluated based on their timestamp and the time deltas aremaintained. An anchor entry holds a baseline reference entry and allother entries are represented as a delta offset from the anchor entry.If the difference between samples falls below a threshold then theentries are substituted by their average. If entries have the samevalue, for example, if the vehicle is stopped, redundant entries arediscarded.

[0090] Prior art databases use begin and end point coordinates to form aroad segment. Real roads are represented by connecting several roadsegments. Road segments allow only the static geometry of the roads tobe captured. An on-board geographic database for each participatingvehicle can be created on the basis of traffic flow segments rather thanroad segments. Pivotal points, as indicated by the black squares andtriangles of FIG. 11, represent begin and end point coordinates oftraffic flow segments. A sample is considered a pivot point if theprevious and next sample differ significantly in either direction orvelocity. For example, vehicle 154 of FIG. 11 is moving in the directionindicated by arrow 155. As can be seen from the samples indicated by thesquares, vehicle 155 maintains the same direction but reduces its speedaround the intersection of the roads. Pivot points are chosen as vehicle154 slows down and speeds up.

[0091] Since a traffic flow segment can be shorter than a prior art roadsegment, generally a relaxation rule is applied to the geographicrepresentation of a polyline comprising many road segments thataggregates a number of small prior art road segments into a singletraffic flow segment. Referring back to FIG. 11 almost all samples canbe considered end-points of a prior art road segment whereas only thepivotal samples are the end-points used to represent a traffic flowsegment. There is a direct relationship between the accuracy of therepresentation of a road and the amount of pivotal points used.

[0092] A database representation based on traffic flow segments is wellsuited for the on-board navigation systems of participating vehicles.The navigation systems continuously calculate multiple routes andsuggest an alternative using current road congestion conditions. Atraffic flow segment database representation not only saves storagespace but also lends itself to efficient, innovative routing algorithmswhich operate on pivotal points rather than road decision nodes such asintersections, off-ramps, and the like.

[0093] In another filtering process, sensor samples are processed usingcaching techniques based on application monitoring in order to do abuffer read-ahead or decide on the replacement policy. For example, avirtual storage access method (VSAM) can be used. VSAM is a datamanagement system that supports key sequenced data sets (KSDS), entrysequenced data sets (ESDS), and relative record data sets (RRDS), makingit very good at efficiently manipulating large amounts of data.

[0094] After pivotal sensor points are selected, a smoothing functionsuch as least-squares fitted to cubic equation, or a Kalman filter,connects the sample points to produce a vehicle trace. An outlierremoval process is applied if some of the pivotal points have a distancethat exceeds a threshold from the produced vehicle trace. After theoutlier removal process, a smooth curve is recalculated based on theremaining pivotal points. Using the accuracy set parameter the processautomatically generates shape points on the pivotal data on a segment bysegment basis. Any smoothed pivotal data not needed to satisfy accuracyrequirements are discarded.

[0095] Centerlining is used to deduce cartographic information since theparticipating vehicle may be driving in the rightmost lane, the leftmost lane, in other lanes, or may be switching lanes. FIG. 12 showstraces from multiple participating vehicles. By analyzing traces ortraffic flow segments from a large number of vehicles, an automatedprocess can determine if a road segment has multiple lanes in onedirection or in multiple directions. Taking the average over all tracesfrom a plurality of participating vehicles traveling in the samedirection is sufficient to determine the center of the roadway.

[0096] The enhanced ad-hoc mode and hierarchical floating car datanetwork enables the accumulation and sharing of multiple traces fromparticipating vehicles. A user does not need to know the exactcharacteristics of the road, nor does a user have to travel on the roadin any pre-specified manner or speed. Instead, merely by using aplurality of traces from normal travel, additional database context canbe generated to describe the width of a lane or road segment, the numberof lanes available, the geometry of a complex intersection, and thelike. For example, the width of a road segment is the minimum andmaximum traces after the removal of the necessary outliers. The numberof lanes can be determined from the density distribution of collectedtraces. Since every trace is associated with a timestamp, if a number ofsimultaneous but space separated traces are collected on the same roadsegment then that number of traces can be used to count the lanesavailable at that portion of the road network.

[0097] Traces from participating vehicles include speed and direction inaddition to location coordinates. By using traffic flow segmentsrepresent of the road network in the database, dynamic routing guidancealgorithms can be made more accurate and detailed. By observing trafficflow patterns of previous samples for a route over a time period,impedance weights can be assigned to intersections, bridges, trafficlights, stop signs, and the like, based on the estimated time it takesfor a vehicle to move past that entity. For example, entering a freewayin the commute hours might include a traffic flow metering light that onaverage requires several minutes of wait time. Alternatively, in somecomplex intersections making a left-turn might take more time that goingthrough the intersection and then making a u-turn followed by a rightturn.

[0098] Prior art navigation solutions always have to cope with a largenumber of route decision choices that exist due to the amount of roadsavailable in a geographic area. While the majority of those choices aremeaningless from the perspective of an end user, a turn-by-turn routingalgorithm cannot easily be programmed to avoid the meaningless choices.By using traffic flow segments along with content from the hierarchicalfloating car data network a participating vehicle may use prioridentified patterns to optimize the organization of the on-boardnavigation database. For a participating vehicle that commutes most daysof the year between the same few locations a database is formedcomprising navigation and real-time traffic guidance for the areas ofinterest. Other areas can be included in the on-board databaseselectively using the likelihood that an end user might need them atsome point. In one example, areas or roads within a short distance fromlocations of interest may be included. In another example, common routeschosen by a large population of participating vehicles in the past maybe included.

[0099] An electronic map update is needed when an old map in an on-boarddatabase becomes obsolete (e.g. every quarter), or when a vehicletravels to a new geographical area. The map of the on-board database isupdated using features and content from the end user's driving patterns.The amount of storage usually required for a complete map is such thatonly one major metropolitan area can be stored in an on-board navigationdevice. For example, a participating vehicle with 100 MB of on-boardstorage capacity dedicated to storing a geographic database may besufficient to store a map image of the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Ifthe end user needs to update the map database or travels outside the BayArea, for example to Las Vegas, Nev., a new map has to be downloaded tothe on-board navigation device erasing at least portions of the previousmap database in order to free some storage space. By way of thehierarchical floating car data network, the end user receives mapupdates continuously as long as there is an egress point or anotherparticipating vehicle within range. The on-board database iscontinuously reorganized to reflect the importance of the availablecontent compared to the end user's behavior. Areas where an end usertravels are characterized as high-value content; areas nearby priorcollected traces are characterized as medium-value content; areas faraway are characterized as low-value content. Through this databaseorganization, when new content or updates become available, space isfreed from the low-value content and replaced with the newly receivedinformation. For the vast majority of end users the on-board databasecomprises approximately 10% high-value content, 25% medium-valuecontent, and 65% low-value content. An end user can configure thedatabase to classify content as desired.

[0100] Returning to the Las Vegas example, when the trip to Las Vegas istaken the low-value content is deleted to make room for installation ofthe new dataset. By default, when traveling to a new area an attempt ismade to install all available information. In the extreme case that thestorage space required to install all available information isinsufficient even after deleting all low and medium-value content, asmaller portion of the new database image is added to providefundamental support for the new area. As the end user spends more timein the Las Vegas Area, the relative content characterization adapts tothe new observed patterns, downgrading content from the San FranciscoBay Area and eventually completely deleting the Bay Area content ifnecessary. If, on the other hand, the end user returns to the Bay Areaafter only a few days in the Las Vegas Area, much of the content fromthat Bay Area database is still available and the content from the LasVegas area is downgraded and purged from the navigation device. The enduser may adjust the responsiveness of the on-board database to newcontent, unlike in the prior art, wherein an end user must perform amanual and complete database overwrite when installing a new dataset.

[0101] Referring back to FIGS. 6 and 8, the interface module 136 ofFIGS. 8 and 106 of FIG. 6 serves as an interface between the processormodule 138 and the modules comprising the navigation module 126 (98),the routing module 128 (108), the cartography module 130 (102), and themaneuver module 132 (104). The interface comprises a wrapper function totranslate external events and actions into a format compatible with thedatabase application. The database may be modified and thosemodifications applied to a variety of applications. Metadata tables,replacement routines and other known methods may be used to signalchanges needed in a database. Some embodiments may not comprise aninterface layer.

[0102] The navigation module 98 and 126, the routing module 100 and 128,the cartography module 102 and 130, and the maneuver module 104 and 132are all in communication with the geographic database 96 and 124. Thenavigation module searches the database for current location and nextdirection information. The routing module uses at least some of theinformation obtained from the navigation module search and also searchesthe database for complete turn-by-turn directions to a destination. Thecartographic module uses at least some of the information obtained fromthe navigation module search to display portions of the map pertainingto the region of travel if an on-board display or monitor is available.The cartographic module also performs addition searches of the databasein order to improve accuracy of the map. The maneuver module, whichoperates when a vehicle deviates from its current route, calculates anew path so that the vehicle returns on a correct path to itsdestination.

[0103]FIG. 13 illustrates the on-board data collection which wasdescribed, in large part, above. After the process start 188, aparticipating vehicle collects data 190. The collected data is cached200 and filtered 202. Next, the cached data is classified 206. Then thecredibility of the classified data is determined 210 and if theclassified data is determined to be credible, the database is updated214. If the classified data is determined to be ambiguous 212, then theclassified data is rejected 216. Alternatively, ambiguous classifieddata may be stored for additional filtering and classification. As shownin FIG. 13, as well as described above, data is collected from v2vcommunications 182, v2r communications 184, WWAN communications 186, GPSmeasurements 192, dead reckoning 194, inertial sensors 196, and OBD 198.

[0104] The filtering 202 performs feature extraction 204. Featureextraction identifies distinguishing features that are invariant tocertain transformations of the input data. For example, when content isaccumulated from participating vehicles, an on-board feature selectoralgorithm may identify features such as popular routes, populationcentroids, congested segments and the like. Part of the featureextraction process for an on-board navigation system creates domainsthat contain information related to the end user's needs.

[0105] Classification 206 uses the domains and features from the featureextractor process to assign new information to the right category. Theclassification process includes learning 208. Learning uses priorinformation to better classify new information. One primary function ofthe classification process is to deal with the variability of new dataso that useful new data are not discarded as noise when a condition isnot met.

[0106] To determine if classified data is credible 210 to update thedatabase 214, statistical reference values are defined based onadditional context. For a coordinate adjustment of a road or a roadsegment the statistical size needed is inversely proportional to thesize of the change. For example, when more than 10 participatingvehicles within one hour suggest a database modification, then theiraverage is calculated and the new coordinates are added in the localdatabase along with a credibility probability. As more participatingvehicles contribute more new data, a new average is calculated and ahigher credibility probability is used to characterize the updateinformation. Data can also be classified by average, median, variance,frequency histograms, percentiles and the like.

[0107] If the participating vehicles use a new flow direction orintersection turn, then statistical samples are constructed. Largesamples of more than 100 participating vehicles are needed to assignconsiderable credibility probability. For example, providing a localdatabase where a road segment is bi-directional, a large statisticalsample is accumulated that demonstrates that all participating vehiclestraveling that particular segment are traveling in the same direction.Additionally, the centerlining process for the same road segment revealsa combined trajectory that lies approximately in the middle of the twoprevious trajectories used to represent the two opposite flows oftraffic. This indicates that the road segment has changed from abi-directional road to a road with only one direction of traffic.

[0108] There is a trade-off between the statistical sample required tomake a change in the database and the responsiveness of the system. Forexample, in many European countries, when under sever asymmetric trafficflows, more lanes from opposite directions might be allocated to thecongested flow for just a few hours. In such a case, a change to thedatabase is only made after a high volume of vehicles produces acredible statistical sample.

[0109] As discussed above, the on-board equipment executes anapplication and the baseline radio operates to transmit and receive datapackets. Particularly, an application finite state machine createsbeacon service table (BST) and vehicle service table (VST) packets asdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/272,039. BST packetscomprise information of only the transmitting participating vehicle andVST packets comprise information of the transmitting participatingvehicle as well as other participating vehicles. The applicationgenerates BST and VST packets and sets the transmission frequency of theBST and VST packets that ensures stable network operation, even with anextremely high concentration of participating vehicles. The applicationalso uses other methods to increase the probability that the transmittedpackets will be received. One method uses controlled packet lengths anddata rates for optimal signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios. Another methodtransmits the packets a multiple number of times.

[0110] Upon receiving a packet, the baseline radio captures the packet.The application finite state machine then inspects the contents of thepacket. For example, the application calculates routing costs for thetrajectory that the participating vehicle must travel to reach itsdestination. Using information received from other participatingvehicles traveling in the opposite direction, the aggregate flowvelocity is estimated, a cost is assigned to the corresponding roadsegments, and a shortest path tree (SPT) routing algorithm is invoked todetermine faster, alternative routes. Alternative routes arecommunicated to the user only when there are substantial benefits intime or distance. This also eliminates over-shooting wherein congestionis transferred to the alternative route because too many users areinstructed to follow the alternative route. The application also alertsthe driver of upcoming collision dangers when the flow velocity reducessuddenly shortly ahead of the participating vehicle.

[0111] The extended radio also makes use of BST and VST packets tocommunicate the trajectories of participating vehicles. For thetransmission of packets, the application communicates with the filteringmodule to create BST and VST packets comprising the vehicle's trace.

[0112]FIG. 15 shows a finite state machine for the application. Thestate machine begins at the init state 252 where all initializationsoccur. Next a transition from the init state 252 to the off state 250occurs. Then, according to a simulation timer, a transition occurs fromthe off state 250 to the on state 248.

[0113] In the on state 248, the application constructs packets ofdigital data. Packets are constructed of a limited and variable length.The limited and variable length nature of the packet significantlyincreases the probability that other on-board equipment, or mobilecommunication devices, receive the packet of digital data as describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/272,039. Since the participatingvehicle may be required to transmit or receive large volumes of data,the extended radio selectively sets the packet size to the maximumallowed length as specified by the IEEE 802.11 standard, which is 2,304bytes.

[0114] FIGS. 17A-D and FIGS. 18A-B collectively illustrate methods forcommunicating between elements, that is participating vehicles andegress points, in the hierarchical floating car data network. FIG. 17Ashows an infrastructure mode packet transmitting method for aparticipating vehicle. If a beacon timer has expired 258 a beaconservice table or a vehicle service table is created 260. Concurrently,if the volume of local data exceeds a memory threshold 262, theapplication module creates a packet burst 264. The packet burstcomprises information for the on-board equipment storage and is ready tobe transmitted as soon as the vehicle establishes communication with anegress point or other participating vehicles. The packet burst has avariable size of several kilobytes. The packet burst or beacon servicetable packet or the vehicle service table packet is sent to the radio266. As the packet burst reaches the radio layer 266, it is fragmentedusing the packet length rules described above and then encapsulated in aregular IEEE 802.11 data packet format. Using the 1-bit more header flaglocated in the MAC header of every IEEE 802.11 encapsulated packet atrain of packet fragments is sequentially transmitted as defined in theIEEE 802.11 standard.

[0115] A packet burst can preemptively occur even if a BST or VST isqueued for transmission 268. Specifically, when in ad-hoc mode, theapplication broadcasts BST and VST packets in the same manner asdescribed for the baseline radio in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/272,039. Additionally, the application broadcasts packet bursts alongwith the BST and VST packets. A participating vehicle that broadcastspacket bursts can purge data packets from its storage area if at leastone other participating vehicle has acknowledged the reception andcustody of the packet burst.

[0116] The packet or packet burst at the radio is queued 260, whichincludes applying a priority scheme. Next, when the medium is idle, thepacket is transmitted 270 and the participating vehicle transitions to areceive mode 272. As will be described with reference to FIGS. 17B-C,after transmission of the packet burst to an egress point, the egresspoint will issue a negative acknowledgment packet to the participatingvehicle in the event that the packet burst was not received properly orrejected by the egress point. The negative acknowledgement packet isreceived by the participating vehicle as will be described withreference to FIG. 17C.

[0117] Since in the infrastructure mode there is usually a small timewindow within which to transmit and receive data, throughput ismaximized albeit at the risk of losing some data packets. Therefore, itis desirable that a participating vehicle that comes within range of anegress point uploads as much data as possible and receives aconfirmation from the egress point so that it can purge the data fromstorage or memory thus freeing up storage space for more data. Unicastdata packet exchange is used in the infrastructure mode and the defaultIEEE 802.11 MAC layer retransmission mechanism is used for instances inwhich a packet was not received successfully.

[0118]FIG. 17D shows an infrastructure mode packet transmitting methodfor an egress point. An egress point transmission sequence begins whenan enhanced beacon timer expires 310, or when a the reception of apacket burst is rejected 290. Rejected packet bursts will be describedwith reference to FIG. 17B. An enhanced beacon packet 314 is createdwhen the enhanced beacon timer expirees 310, or a negativeacknowledgment packet 316 is created if the packet burst is rejected(288 of FIG. 17B). The enhanced beacon packet or the negativeacknowledgement packet is sent to the radio 318. The packet at the radiois queued 320 which includes applying a priority scheme. The queuedpacket is transmitted 322 when the communication medium is idle, and theradio returns to the default receive mode 274. The application runningat the egress point does not provide positive acknowledgements forperformance reasons.

[0119]FIG. 17C shows an infrastructure mode packet receiving method fora participating vehicle. In the receive mode 272, the participatingvehicle receives a beacon service table or vehicle service table packetor packet burst 294, or a negative acknowledgment packet 296. Thenegative acknowledgement packet is transmitted by egress point when thereception of a packet burst sent by the participating vehicle isrejected (FIGS. 17B and 17D). The received packet 294 or 296 is sent toan application 298. The packet is processed 300 by the application. Itis determined if the packet burst should be retransmitted 302. If anegative acknowledgement was received, the packet burst is retransmittedby transitioning to the transmit mode 306. The packet burst isretransmitted after a randomly chosen backoff interval or theretransmission is deferred until another egress point is within range.This decision 302 is depends on the reason for the failure to receivethe packets as specified in the negative acknowledgement. If animmediate retransmission is determined a transition to the transmit modeoccurs 306. If transmission is not necessary the radio transitions tothe default receive mode 272.

[0120] Concurrent with the receive mode, the link with the egress pointis monitored. If the link is lost 400, that is the participating vehicleloses communication with the egress point, it is determined if anegative acknowledgment was received 402 while the link was active. If anegative acknowledgement was not received it is assumed that anytransmitted packets were successfully received by the egress point andthose packets are flagged 404. Flagged packet may be deleted by theparticipating vehicle. Next a transition is made to the receive mode272. If a negative acknowledgment was received the radio transitions tothe receive mode 272 and the packets are not deleted.

[0121]FIG. 17B shows an infrastructure mode packet receiving method foran egress point. In the receive mode 274 the egress point receives abeacon service table or vehicle service table packet 276, or a packetburst 278 from a participating vehicle. The packet 276 or 278 is sent tothe application 280 where it is either accepted 282 or rejected 288. Thepacket is rejected 288 if a memory threshold is exceeded 286. If thepacket is accepted the egress point radio remains in the defaultreceiving mode 274, otherwise a transition occurs to the transmit mode290 whereby a negative acknowledgement packet is created and transmittedto the participating vehicle as described above.

[0122] FIGS. 18A-B show ad-hoc mode packet transmitting and receivingmethods between participating vehicles. In the ad-hoc mode the amount oftime that two or more participating vehicles can communicate withinvaries from very small in the case of vehicles traveling at high speedsin opposite directions, to very large for vehicles moving in the samedirection at substantially equal speeds. For broadcast onlycommunication links, all packet exchange is unacknowledged at the mediaaccess controller (MAC) layer. The application at the receiving vehiclegenerates a positive acknowledgement packet after a randomly chosen timeoffset to indicate that the receiving vehicle has taken custody of thereceived packet. To avoid the case where many receiving vehiclessimultaneously transmit a positive acknowledgment packet after receivingan identical broadcast packet, a timer at each participating vehicle israndomly set. Any participating vehicle that receives a packet fromanother participating vehicle before its randomly set timer expires doesnot transmit the positive acknowledgement.

[0123]FIG. 18A shows an ad-hoc mode packet transmitting method for aparticipating vehicle. In the transmit mode 366, the participatingvehicle will transmit a packet when a beacon timer expires 326, when amemory threshold is exceeded 328, or when a positive acknowledgement isrequired 330 after the randomly chosen time. If the beacon timer hasexpired 326 a beacon service table or vehicle service table packet iscreated 332. If the memory threshold is exceeded 328 a packet burst iscreated 334. If a positive acknowledgement is needed 330 a positiveacknowledgement packet is created 336. The packet 332, 334, or 336 issent 338 to the radio. The packet is queued 340, which includes applyinga priority scheme. The queued packet is transmitted 340, and the radiotransitions to a receive mode 346.

[0124]FIG. 18B shows an ad-hoc mode packet receiving method for theparticipating vehicle. In the receive mode 346, either a packet isreceived 347 or a timer expires 349. The timer was described above inaccordance with positive acknowledgements. The received packet may be abeacon service table or vehicle service table packet 350, packet burst352, or a positive acknowledgement 353. The packet 350, 352, or 353 issent to an application 354. The packet is processed 356 by theapplication where it is determined whether the packet should be rejected358, accepted 360, or if the packet is a positive acknowledgement 363.If the packet is rejected 358 the radio transitions back to the receivemode 346. If the packet is accepted 360, the timer with a random offsetfor a positive acknowledgment signal is set 361, and the radiotransitions back to the receive mode 346. If the processed packet 356 isa positive acknowledgement packet 363, the timer is reset 365, and theradio transitions back to the receive mode 346. If the timer expires 349before a positive acknowledgement is received 347 from anotherparticipating vehicle, a positive acknowledgement signal is generated369, and a transition is made to the transmit mode 366. The positiveacknowledgement signal 369 causes the creation of the positiveacknowledgement packet 330 and 336 as described above in accordance withFIG. 18A. Multiple positive acknowledgement packet transmissions frommultiple participating vehicles are reduced since only a few positiveacknowledgements are transmitted before all participating vehicleswithin range reset their timers. Alternatively, positiveacknowledgements may be transmitted from only those participatingvehicles with stable, high quality communication links. Furthermore,current location and trajectory may be used to determine whichparticipating vehicles should issue positive acknowledgements.

[0125] The decision to accept 360, or take custody of the packet burst,or reject 358 the packet burst is based on the amount of resourcesavailable at the participating vehicle as well as its trajectory andconnectivity. When a participating vehicle has an excessive amount ofdata stored in its memory, and another participating vehicle has verylittle data in its memory, the first vehicle transmits some of its datato the second vehicle. The trajectory of a participating vehicle isconsidered in ascertaining whether to assume custody of data from otherparticipating vehicles. If a participating vehicle is moving towards anegress point, then accumulated data can be uploaded to a higher layer ofthe hierarchical floating car data network, and from there to otherparticipating vehicles. In this way, a participating vehicle acts as amobile router, transferring data from other participating vehicles to anegress point. Alternatively, a participating vehicle that has WWANcapabilities can transmit data received in the ad-hoc mode from otherparticipating vehicles directly to the central server. From the centralserver, the data can be transmitted to egress points and participatingvehicles.

[0126]FIG. 19 illustrates two participating vehicles sharing routeinformation. A participating vehicle 384 requests routing directions.The participating vehicle 384 broadcasts a BST/VST beacon packet. Thebeacon packet includes a flag that signals a request for routingdirections to a destination of the transmitting vehicle 384. Thetransmitting vehicle 384 may or may not be carrying an on-boardgeographic database.

[0127] When the beacon packet is received by an egress point 382, theegress point obtains routing instructions from its regional database. Ifthere is no regional database at the egress point, as may be the casewith a mobile egress point, turn-by-turn directions can be obtained frompreviously collected traces received by the egress point from otherparticipating vehicles. Also, the egress point can forward the routingrequest to another egress point that has a regional database, or therouting request can be forwarded to the central database.

[0128] Another participating vehicle within range may also receive thebeacon and respond with a packet comprising a series of routinginstructions to the destination. The response packet can be constructedfrom a query of the local database of the participating vehicle thatreceived the beacon, or from a destination approximation algorithm. Forexample, a participating vehicle 386 that originated from a locationnearby the requested destination may return its complete trace ininverse order as a routing aid to a requesting vehicle 388. This may beuseful in obtaining at least partial instructions until anotherparticipating vehicle can provide further assistance.

[0129] If a participating vehicle requesting or receiving a request fordirections has only a street name in its database but no data to produceturn-by-turn directions, the vehicle derives the coordinates of thedestination using an on-board reverse-geocoding application process.Using those coordinates, a surrounding minimum bounding rectangle servesas the designated destination. If another participating vehicle withinrange has any kind of overlap routing information within the designateddestination, then a packet comprising the routing information istransmitted back to the requesting vehicle to facilitate routingdecisions. The amount of overlap, or the distance between thedestination and the closest geographic location from the receivedrouting information, is compared against a threshold to determine itsrelevance.

[0130] Databases and Updates

[0131] Referring back to FIG. 15, when a packet is received a transitionfrom either the on state 248 or the off sate 250 to the rx_packet state256 occurs. In the rx_packet state 256, the packet contents, such as BSTand VST data, are extracted, processed, analyzed and stored. After thereceived packet has been determined that it comprises new data aself-interrupt causes a transition from the rx_state 256 to the sensorstate 246 for further processing as shown by the “NEW_SAMPLE” transitionarrow.

[0132] If the further processing produces statistical confidence thatthe local database needs to be updated, then a transition occurs fromthe sensor state 246 to the database state 242 as shown by the“UPDATE_DATABASE” transition arrow. The database state 242 comprises ahash table with data available from U.S. Census sources, along with aquery-response interface for input/output. Alternatively, the databasestate 242 comprises direct system calls to commercially availablegeographic databases. The data available in the database state 242 canbe accessed by all other states in the application.

[0133] The egress point software of FIG. 6 and the on-board software ofFIG. 8 include a geographic database 96, 124 respectively. Geographicdatabases have many different formats. In participating vehicles, thegeographic database is referred to as a local database. The localdatabase comprises a compressed, limited data set that covers particularareas of interest or travel. In the egress points, the geographicdatabase is referred to as a regional database, or an egress pointdatabase. The egress point database comprises a data set of the regioncovered by the egress point. The egress point database may also comprisedata on additional regions outside the range of the egress point if theegress point equipment has sufficient memory and storage. The centralserver comprises the central database, which comprises data of allregions.

[0134]FIG. 16 shows a method for updating a database implemented by thedatabase state 242. The area of interest on which the database update isgoing to occur is defined 374 using a bounding rectangle to define anarea database. The area database is loaded into memory 376. A databasein a participating vehicle does not necessary have all the cartographicdetails due to the different approach described previously in organizingcontent based on the needs of the individual end user and not thegeographic region. In such a case, the participating vehicle attempts topass the information up to an egress point or a mobile egress point. Anegress point also operates on a database using dynamic content from thehierarchical floating car data network. At the same time more detailscan be retrieved and integrated as need arises. For example, an egresspoint may load into memory more data describing a road segment that wasnot received from participating vehicles. In this way, the egress pointis able to expand the detail of the database and simultaneously assessif the new received data results a database update or some other event.In some cases, the egress point may not be able to assess if an updateis needed, or the egress point might not be able to locally retrieveinformation that can be associated with the received report from aparticipating vehicle. In such a case, the egress point contacts thecentral server where a database with all details is maintained alongwith a database comprising content from only the network.

[0135] Referring back to FIG. 16, a shape algorithm is applied 378 togenerate the geometric representation of present map features such aslines, polylines, curves, rectangles, polygons and the like. Next,control points are derived 389 that are used to represent complexfeatures generated from the shape algorithm 378. Pivotal data iscontinuously loaded 368 from the on-board sensor modules and additionalcontext 370 is derived. As described previously, additional context isgenerated to classify content based on the end user's preferences andbehavior. If additional context is available, it is used to determinethe area of interest 374 based not only on the current location of theparticipating vehicle but also on the features that are most likely tobe used from the end user driving the vehicle.

[0136] Using the additional context to define the area of interest andclassify the collected sensor data, a pattern matching algorithm 372 isused to compare, validate, and integrate the information available. Manypattern matching algorithms may be used. Some examples include maximumlikelihood estimation, Bayesian estimation, discriminant functions,neural networks and machine learning.

[0137] Upon completion of the database update, the state machine returnsto the sensor state 246 and then back to the state that caused thetransition to the sensor state 246.

[0138] In most geographic databases, roads are classified based on theamount of detail they provide. For example, in one database, four levelsof detail are used. At level 1, major interstate freeways are included.At level 2, interstates, highways, and expressways are included. Atlevel 3, interstates, highways, expressways, and main residentialstreets are included. At level 4, all available roads are included.Turn-by-turn routing algorithms use the layered structure of thedatabase road representation to expedite the process of discovering theroute to the destination. A common approach includes, after setting theorigin and destination points, applying routing at the highest level forareas nearby the origin-destination points, and for the remaininguncovered areas, applying routing search algorithms using road detailinformation available at level 2.

[0139]FIG. 14 shows traces from a plurality of participating vehiclestraveling a network of roads. Most of the vehicle traces 218, 220, 222,226, 228, 230, 234, 236, and 238 correspond to road information of thedatabase. However, the portion of traces indicated by region 240 doesnot correspond with the roads of the database. In this exemplary case, apiecewise Rubber-Sheet transformation and ward point triangulationcomparisons can be performed to adjust the database. These calculationscan be performed on the local database of a participating vehicle, at adatabase at an egress point, or at the database at the central server.

[0140] Sometimes traces from participating vehicles may correspond tooff-road routes and not a new road or an additional lane. For example, adriver may drive through a gas station to avoid a traffic light at anintersection. That route should not be considered as an indication thatthe intersection has changed. In another example, the trace of a vehicleusing a bike lane or the emergency lane should not be considered as anindication of a new available lane. Also, overlapping areas such asbridges, overpasses, and tunnels should not be considered intersections.Trend analysis of the samples is used to avoid situations such as these.Trend analysis is based on linear regression equations. Many othertechniques may be used.

[0141] Errors can also be produced when calculating average flow speedfor road segments comprising both carpool lanes and regular lanes. Onmany large roads a carpool lane, or high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane,is reserved for use by vehicle carrying more than one passenger. Whenthe speed of the vehicle is recorded, as discussed above, some vehicleswill appear to be moving much faster than other vehicles, producing anartificially high average flow speed. If the sample is large enough theerror can be reduced since a much larger proportion of vehicles travelon non-HOV lanes over during a period of time. For example, if 75% ofparticipating vehicles are not in the HOV lane then using the median ofall readings for a road segment leads to a number much closer to therealistic flow speed. Alternatively, using the relative location ofparticipating vehicle along with speed can also provide accurateresults. For example, a participating vehicle with a trace that appearson average to be on the 10% of the leftmost traces previouslyaccumulated for a road segment is very likely to be using an HOV lane.This is further the case if the vehicle is moving at a much higheraverage flow speed than vehicles with traces on the rest of the roadsegment.

[0142] One common, and standard, interchange format for geographicdatabases is the Geographic Data File (GDF) format. GDF is used by theInternational Standards Organization (ISO) and Committee European pourNormalization (CEN). Another common interchange format is the SpatialData Transfer Standard (SDTS). Another format called openGIS from theOpen GIS Consortium can be used to represent GIS data from variousdatabase providers. Many methods and systems may be used to form thegeographic databases from sensor data from the participating vehicles asthey travel the transportation network such as the method and system ofU.S. Pat. No. 5,953,722, which is hereby incorporated by reference.

[0143] The structure of the geographic database supports methods tosearch and identify objects of interest. An object of interest comprisesunique database semantic identifiers and enhanced characteristics tofacilitate interpretation of database entries. In the GDF model a node,edge, point, line, area, federal information processing standards(FIPS), relationship, source document, and a name are objects ofinterest. A set of nodes or edges, X/Y/Z values, attributes, text of aname, geometric composition, and any descriptive information arecharacteristics. A sub-attribute may be used with a characteristic todefine a limitation for an object. When a characteristic is associatedwith an object it is given a value.

[0144] A database object can be identified by either an explicitreference when a unique identifier is available, or by a descriptivereference when a portion of the characteristic data forms the databasequery. The database publisher is responsible for defining the referenceapplicable to a database object, the format of the references, and thefields that comprise a reference.

[0145] There are two kinds of updates that can take place in a database:an incremental update, and an insert or delete update. An incrementalupdate is for updating old data with current data. An insert or deleteupdate is for inserting new information or deleting old information. Forexample, a change in the allowable traffic direction is an incrementalupdate, whereas a new street entity (name and direction) is an insertionupdate. All updates are accompanied by control metadata that ensures theintegrity of the database before and after the update. As an update isprocessed, the database transitions between valid states and alwaysmaintains a valid fallback state in case of database instabilities.

[0146] An update identifier is a number that uniquely identifies theupdating process. Since many participating vehicles and egress pointscan generate database updates, an update identifier comprises twofields: a unique participating vehicle or egress point identifier, and awrap-around sequentially increasing integer which is based on the numberof updates produced from the same source. The update identifier alsocomprises a dependency field, a database identification fields, atimestamp, and a number of actions field. The dependency field is a setof update identifiers that must be successfully completed prior to thecurrent update. The database identification field is the identifier ofthe database being updated. The timestamp is the time period duringwhich the update information became available. The number of actionsfield is the number of updates requested from the source of theadditional information, that is the participating vehicle or egresspoint.

[0147] The update identifier also comprises the database actions. Thedatabase actions comprise a detailed description of the nature of theupdate to be performed. The types of actions are: add and object, deleteand object, add a characteristic, delete a characteristic, and modify acharacteristic. An action comprises the fields: a credibility factorthat comprises the statistical sample collected before the update wasgenerated, an object reference that provides a pointer to an object, anold data state and a new data state comprising the old and new contentsof the object. The contents of the old data state and the new data statechange according to the type of the action that is required.

[0148] An action is performed if the statistical sample described by thecredibility control field exceeds a threshold. If there is no strongstatistical evidence to apply an update, the action is discarded.Calibration using past results can take place to adjust the credibilityfactor if it appears to be too high to too low.

[0149] The geographic database and the updates can be represented indifferent formats. In that case, a wrapper may be used to translate aproprietary database format to a non-proprietary database format,incorporate the new updates, and then translate the resultant databaseto its original proprietary format. A metadata table can be used totranslate data from a future version database to a database in use by aparticipating vehicle. If a metadata table cannot provide the necessaryversion translation, replacement routines are used. A replacementroutine replaces native code from the interface layer, or a navigationapplication. To speed up execution of the replacement routine they maybe compiled to an interpreted, machine independent format. Portions ofthe metadata engine may be written in a Java virtual machine (JVM)environment. If memory is limited, replacement functions may be loadedinto memory during initialization or during run-time as needed.

[0150] To ensure stability and continuous operation of the database ofthe central server, a duplicate copy of the database is maintained. Aparticipating vehicle or egress point uploads information to the centralserver. A database modification process similar to that described abovecompares the new information with the current database contents andcreates a transaction data file that contains all necessary actions thatneed to be executed. Each transaction identifies the data entityaffected and the kind of modification to be made to it. A uniquetransaction ID is assigned to each transaction in the data file. Theresultant file comprises a series of modifications to be made to thesecond database. Once the second database has been successfully updated,the original copy of the central database is checked out to apply themodifications stored in the transaction file.

[0151] Through the hierarchical floating car data network, databaseupdating is redefined through a layered, data-centric architecture.Egress points, for example, comprise a portion of the central databasethat covers their geographic vicinity. Egress points upload theirmodified regional databases, along with their accumulated data, to thecentral server. Using a unique egress point region identifier, thecentral server directly integrates the regional database.

[0152] When exchanging databases or routing traces, compression methodsutilizing data represented as deltas can be used, such as in U.S. Pat.No. 6,460,046, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Curve fittingmethods, linear approximation, and other methods can also be used.Huffman coding may be used, where Huffman trees can be created thatcorrespond to different information layers of the database, such as inU.S. Pat. No. 6,393,149 which is hereby incorporated by reference. Ifprocessing requirement for compression and decompression are high,thereby causing processing bottlenecks, less efficient compressiontechniques may be used. Scaling methods may be used to select samplepoints along new or modified trajectories in much the same way avariable segment length describes a complex line.

[0153] The foregoing detailed description has discussed only a few ofthe many forms that this invention can take. It is intended that theforegoing detailed description be understood as an illustration ofselected forms that the invention can take and not as a definition ofthe invention. It is only the following claims, including allequivalents, that are intended to define the scope of this invention.

1 to
 45. (Cancelled).
 46. Egress point equipment in a hierarchicalfloating car data network, the egress point equipment comprising: amicroprocessor; a memory; a storage device; a communication module;antennas connected to said communication module; and a businterconnecting said microprocessor, said memory, said storage device,and said communication module.
 47. The invention of claim 46 whereinsaid communication module comprises a wireless local are network radio.48. The invention of claim 46 wherein said communication modulecomprises a wireless wide area network radio.
 49. The invention of claim46 wherein said communication module comprises a wireline connection.50. The invention of claim 46 wherein said memory comprises egress pointsoftware which when executed by said microprocessor causes the egresspoint equipment to operate in the hierarchical floating car datanetwork, said egress point software comprising: a geographic database;navigation module means for searching said geographic database forlocation and direction information; routing module means for determiningturn-by-turn direction; cartographic module means for displaying aportion of said geographic database; maneuver module means forcalculating a path; processor module means for running an operatingsystem, interfaces, and an application; interface module means forinterfacing between said processor module means and said navigationmodule means, said routing module means, said cartography means, andsaid maneuver module means; wireless communication module means forcommunication according to a communication protocol; wirelinecommunication module means for communicating according to a wirelineconnection; and cache means for storing data from said wirelesscommunication module means and said wireline module means.
 51. Thehierarchical floating car data network of claim 8, wherein each egresspoint comprises: a microprocessor; a memory; a storage device; acommunication module; antennas connected to said communication module;and a bus interconnecting said microprocessor, said memory, said storagedevice, and said communication module.
 52. The hierarchical floating cardata network of claim 51, wherein the memory comprises egress pointsoftware which when executed by the microprocessor causes the egresspoint equipment to operate in the hierarchical floating car datanetwork, the egress point software comprising: a geographic database;navigation module means for searching the geographic database forlocation and direction information; routing module means for determiningturn-by-turn direction; cartographic module means for displaying aportion of said geographic database; maneuver module means forcalculating a path; processor module means for running an operatingsystem, interfaces, and an application; interface module means forinterfacing between said processor module means and the navigationmodule means, the routing module means, the cartography means, and themaneuver module means; wireless communication module means forcommunication according to a communication protocol; and cache means forstoring data from said wireless communication module means and saidwireline module means.
 53. The hierarchical floating car data network ofclaim 52, wherein each fixed egress point further comprises wirelinecommunication module means for communicating according to a wirelineconnection.
 54. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 51wherein the communication module comprises a wireless local areanetwork.
 55. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 51wherein the communication module comprises a wireless wide area network.56. A hierarchical floating car data network, comprising: a centralserver; at least a first fixed egress point, the first egress pointcomprising a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio and acommunication link to the central server; and a participating vehiclenetwork, the participating vehicle network comprising on-board equipmentcarried in at least a first and a second vehicle, the on-board equipmentin the first and the second vehicles comprising a WLAN radio and alocate position module, the WLAN radio in the first vehiclecommunicating via an enhanced ah-hoc mode with the WLAN radio in thesecond vehicle, the first and/or the second vehicle WLAN radiocommunicating via an infrastructure mode with the first fixed egresspoint WLAN radio, and wherein the enhanced ad-hoc and infrastructurecommunication modes each comprise a location-based adaptive data-ratecontrol method.
 57. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim56, further comprising: at least one mobile egress point, the mobileegress point comprising on-board equipment carried in at least a thirdvehicle in the participating vehicle network, the mobile egress pointon-board equipment comprising a WLAN radio, a locate position module,and a wireless wide area network (WWAN) radio for communication with thecentral server, the mobile egress point WLAN radio communicating via anenhanced ah-hoc mode with the WLAN radio in the first and/or the secondvehicle.
 58. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 56 orclaim 57, wherein: the first and/or the second vehicle WLAN radio areoperated in the enhanced ad-hoc mode by default; and the first and/orthe second vehicle WLAN radio automatically transitions to theinfrastructure mode when the locate position module indicates that thefirst and/or second vehicle is within range of the first egress point.59. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 56 or claim 57,wherein the location-based adaptive data-rate control method comprisesan automated transmit power control mechanism based on the location ofthe first and/or second vehicle as determined by the locate positionmodule.
 60. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 56 orclaim 57, wherein the WLAN radio in the first vehicle transmits at avariable transmit power level, and the automated transmit power controlmechanism comprises the steps of: reducing the transmit power level asthe first vehicle approaches the location of the first fixed egresspoint; and increasing the transmit power level as the first vehicleapproaches the location of the first fixed egress point.
 61. Thehierarchical floating car data network of claim 56 or claim 57, whereinthe locate position module determines the position of the first and/orsecond vehicle by a global positioning system and/or an enhanced deadreckoning method.
 62. The hierarchical floating car data network ofclaim 56 or claim 57, further comprising at least a second fixed egresspoint, the second fixed egress point comprising a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN) radio and a communication link to the central server, thefirst fixed egress point communicating with the second fixed egresspoint.
 63. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 56 orclaim 57, wherein the communication link to the central server isselected from a wireline connection and a wireless wide area network(WLAN) radio.
 64. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 56or claim 57, wherein the first egress point comprises means forreceiving data transmitted from the WLAN radio in the first and/or thesecond vehicle, means for processing the data, and means for updating ageographic database with the processed data.
 65. The hierarchicalfloating car data network of claim 56 or claim 57, wherein the firstegress point comprises means for reading a database, means forperforming calculations on the database to produce data, and means fortransmitting the data to WLAN radio in the first and/or the secondvehicles.
 66. The hierarchical floating car data network of claim 65,further comprising channel frequency allocation map means for assigningfrequency channels to the WLAN radio in the first egress point and tothe WLAN radios in the first and/or the second vehicles such that theWLAN radio in the first egress point and the WLAN radios in the firstand/or the second vehicles communicate over frequency channels assignedby the central server.
 67. The hierarchical floating car data network ofclaim 66, wherein the channel frequency allocation map means furthercomprises scanning means for locating frequency channels.
 68. Thehierarchical floating car data network of claim 56 or claim 57, whereinthe on-board equipment further comprises on-board software, and whereinthe on-board software receives automatic updates from the central serverand/or the first egress point.
 69. A hierarchical floating car datanetwork method comprising the steps of: communicating data between afirst participating vehicle and a first fixed egress point in ahierarchical floating car data network according to an infrastructuremode of communication, wherein the infrastructure mode of communicationfurther comprises a location-based adaptive rate control method thatuses an automated transmit power control mechanism to vary a transmitpower from a wireless local area network radio (WLAN) in the firstvehicle as a function of proximity of the first vehicle to the firstegress point; accumulating content data from the first vehicle at thefirst egress point; transmitting the accumulated content data from thefirst egress point to a central server; and relaying data stored at thefirst egress point and/or the centrals server to the first vehicleand/or a wireless local area network radio (WLAN) in a second vehicleaccording to the infrastructure mode of communication.
 70. Thehierarchical floating car data network method of claim 69, furthercomprising the step of: communicating data between the WLAN radios inthe first and the second vehicles via an enhanced ad-hoc mode ofcommunication, wherein the enhanced ad-hoc mode of communication furthercomprises a location-based adaptive rate control method that uses anautomated transmit power control mechanism to vary the transmit powerfrom the WLAN radios in the first and the second vehicles as a functionof proximity of the first vehicle to the second vehicle.
 71. Thehierarchical floating car data network method of claim 69 or claim 70,further comprising the steps of: communicating state information fromWLAN radios in the first and/or the second vehicle to the WLAN in thefirst egress point; and sharing the state information between the firstegress point and a second egress point.
 72. The hierarchical floatingcar data network method of claim 69 or claim 70, further comprising thesteps of: exchanging content between the first egress point and a secondegress point.
 73. The hierarchical floating car data network method ofclaim 72, wherein: the content comprises a beacon service table
 74. Thehierarchical floating car data network method of claim 72, wherein: thecontent comprises a vehicle service table.